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There’s no sugar-coating it—many law firms are still bogged down by sluggish systems and outdated processes. From legal research to drafting contracts, the daily work of lawyers is often slowed by clunky tools and workflows that haven’t kept pace with the rest of the business world.

More than one in three lawyers say their firm is adequate, slow or very slow at delivering legal work. That’s a problem. Because while clients are demanding more personalised services, faster turnarounds, and better communication, many firms are still wrestling with inefficient drafting tools and broken knowledge flows.

But what exactly do lawyers want from their drafting solutions? A recent survey by UU����ֱ�� offers insight into the top features that practitioners across private practice and in-house roles say would make a real difference to how they work.

The pain of a slow drafting process

Nearly half (45%) of lawyers surveyed said their drafting and document review processes were “adequate, slow or very slow.” That’s a major issue, considering how central these tasks are to legal work.

Tony Randle, Partner for Client Tech & Service Improvement at Shoosmiths, says their firm took a strategic view: “We identified that building legal tech, including AI, into legal workflows common to most of our practice areas will deliver the greatest positive benefits.” In short, improving drafting workflows isn’t just a tech upgrade—it’s a performance upgrade.

The challenge is finding tools that actually make a difference, rather than simply digitising old inefficiencies. As Hélder Santos of Bird & Bird notes, “The biggest areas for innovation are to the client experience, workflow optimisation, and legal drafting.”

Let’s focus on that last piece—drafting.

What lawyers want from their drafting tools

We asked lawyers to choose the three features they consider most important in a legal drafting solution. Here’s what stood out:

• Works inside Microsoft Word (41%)
  Unsurprisingly, Word remains the drafting environment of choice for most lawyers. Any tool that doesn’t integrate seamlessly into Word is likely to be met with resistance. Lawyers don’t want to relearn how to draft—they want to enhance what they’re already doing.

• Comprehensive clause libraries (37%)
  Lawyers want reliable, pre-approved language they can drop into documents without reinventing the wheel. Clause libraries save time, reduce risk, and ensure consistency across practice groups.

• Access to up-to-date legal research (36%)
  Whether you're drafting a contract or writing a letter of advice, being able to verify legal positions in real-time is critical. Lawyers want drafting tools that connect to legal research databases and ensure the information they use is accurate and current.

• Proof-reading and sense checking (28%)
  Lawyers are detail-obsessed by nature. But having software that flags stylistic issues, ambiguous wording, or inconsistencies can save valuable time—and prevent embarrassment.

• Automated contract management (24%)
  Templates with pre-set clauses are no longer a “nice to have.” They’re becoming a standard expectation, particularly for high-volume practices such as commercial contracts or employment law.

Other popular features included:

• User-friendly interface (22%)

• Robust data security (18%)

• E-signature capabilities (18%)

• Compliance review automation (19%)

• Real-time collaboration (14%)

• DMS integration (14%)

Interestingly, fewer than 4% of lawyers said they would only ever create legal documents manually, showing a clear shift in mindset: legal tech is no longer the future—it’s the present.

Culture eats software for breakfast

Of course, technology alone doesn’t solve drafting problems. Culture, structure, and leadership matter just as much.

Darren Mitchell, COO at Simmons & Simmons, believes knowledge management is at the heart of change: “It’s key for driving how we structure and use core documents to enable the effective use of AI-powered tools.” If you’re not managing your clauses, templates, and knowledge centrally, you’re missing a major opportunity.

Nick West, Chief Strategy Officer at Mishcon de Reya, echoes this sentiment: “The innovation activities of a legal department should closely align with the organisation’s current business goals… At different times, one’s efforts might be weighted more towards one type of innovation in favour of another.”

That could mean focusing on building a better "legal front door" to handle internal requests, or driving productivity in contracting workflows. The key is knowing what matters most to your firm or department—and backing the right tools to deliver impact.

Time to rethink the role of drafting

Legal drafting is more than just a transactional task. It’s where lawyers think, strategise, and deliver advice. But too often, it becomes a repetitive administrative burden.

By adopting smarter drafting solutions, lawyers can reclaim their time and focus on high-value work—analysing risk, advising clients, negotiating better outcomes. And with tools like Lexis+ AI and Lexis+ Create now offering deep Word integration, access to trusted research, and AI-powered clause suggestions, the possibilities for transformation are better than ever.

Innovation with intention

There’s no shortage of shiny tech. But real innovation happens when law firms and legal teams take a deliberate approach—identifying the pain points that drag performance down and applying solutions with surgical precision.

Tony Randle puts it best: “Mapping out the areas that are going to have the biggest positive impact across the firm or legal team is the first step.”

Don’t settle for sluggish drafting. Whether you’re a private practice partner, a junior associate, or an in-house counsel, now is the time to upgrade your toolkit—and accelerate the work that matters.